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Ask Slashdot: Which Laptop Should I Buy For My First Employee?
vikingpower writes: Until now, yours truly has been running a one-man freelancer show. However, since January 1st the first employee is here, and of course I'm mighty proud of a stellarly clever young person working for me. She works remotely (I'm in one European capital; she is in another) and I need to buy her a laptop. Since she's straight out of college and a non-techie, she basically only knows one OS: Windows, although she could get comfortable with macOS. However, as a long-time (server-side) programmer, I feel Apple hardware is seriously overpriced. Also, my brilliant first employee will mostly do research and hardly needs anything more than a browser, Office or Office-like software (yes, I'm looking at you, Libre Office, and I love you!), and bibliography software. Should I get her a Chromebook or a mid-level laptop running Windows? Any thoughts?
No - she's a "non-techie". Don't just ask her to do it herself - if you've got a budget and there's some hardware you like then suggest that's what you're considering and ask for her feedback/confirmation. As a new employee out of college, you will gain a lot of kudos as an employer by buying her a decent laptop. How would you feel if your new employer bunged you a second-hand laptop or a chromebook? I'd be checking the job boards. When we hired we used to buy refurb Apple laptops until we needed more current hardware so shelled out for new MacBook Pro's. The employee we wanted to keep has been with us now for 8 years and we are stoked.